Q: Which is considered to be the rarest disease in the world?
A: RPI Deficiency. The lack of Ribose-5-Phosphate Isomerase (RPI), a crucial enzyme, can cause muscle stiffness, seizures, and reduction of white matter in the brain. The only known patient was diagnosed in 1984.
Q: The movie Paa, starring father and son duo Amitabh Bacchhan and his son Abhishek, in a role reversal situation, has a plot built on a rare disease. Do you know what it is?
A: Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome. Or, merely Progeria, which causes premature ageing.
Q: Of the more bizarre rare diseases, is one to do with a speech disorder that causes a sudden change to speech, so that a native speaker is perceived to speak with a ‘foreign’ accent. What is it?
A: Foreign Accent Syndrome is a real thing. It is often caused by damage to the brain.
Q: Royals do not really have blue blood, but people suffering from a certain rare disease do have blue colour blood. What is the disease that causes this discolouration?
A: Methemoglobinemia, a blood disorder in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin, a form of haemoglobin, is produced.
Q: What is Stone Man’s Disease, known to be so rare as to occur only one in 2 million people?
A: It transforms a person’s muscle tissues into bones, and is also known as.fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). The heart, diaphragm, tongue, and other extra smooth and eye muscles are the only bodily muscles that are exempt.
Q: The only rare, incurable disease that has met a fatal end itself is a brain disorder caused by a particular habit among the tribes in New Guinea. What is it? What was the habit?
A: Kuru disease. It is an acquired infectious disease linked with the ritualistic practice of feeding upon the corpses of relatives as part of mourning. Putting an end to the practice meant an end to the disease as well.
